Hannibal - Writers Forum

Malone · 01-17-2008, 04:07 PM

Alright...I was organizing my old room and came across this book. I remember I bought it a couple years ago because I couldn't find anything else I hadn't read at our small local bookstore. I started it, skeptically, almost put it down after the first chapter, but plunged ahead and finished it in a couple days.
Now, this is one that is along the vein of Jurassic Park. Reading through it, I was constantly wincing at the writing or working out how I would rewrite it, but the content was great.
The author introduces all kind of interesting ideas through Dr. Lecter. Memory Palace (which I subsequently researched and found enthralling) I found myself actually wanting to BE Hannibal at times.

I don't know...I just thought I'd bring this book up to continue the always present debate of content vs. writing.

lordofhats · 01-17-2008, 04:18 PM

Darnit, I thought this was about Hannibal Barca... darn lectur no one remembers Barca anymore.

I like Lecter though. He's one of the few genuinly scary characters to appear in pop culture in a while. Him and Jig Saw. Content vs. Writing huh? Well I only require that the writing be enough that reading isn't a burden. If the writing is passable and the content is great I'll love the book.

Stewart · 01-28-2008, 03:50 PM

There's was a fantastic lengthy review of Hannibal by Martin Amis, now collected in The War Against Cliche, which tore this book to pieces, noting that with each book Harris writes he is getting progressively worse. The most memorable part - on noting that Lecter was a cameo in Red Dragon, then a supporting cast in The Silence Of The Lambs - was Amis' reporting that Harris had 'gone gay for Hannibal':

Quote:

The bloating of the Lecter figure entails, or is at any rate accompanied by, the shrivelling of Clarice Starling. Throughout, Harris writes about her without the faintest quickening of authorial love; having gone gay for Hannibal, the author has palpably wearied of Clarice, whose main function in this novel is one of humble plot-furtherance.

Other damning went not just to the novel, but the critics who praised it:

Quote:

'Beautifully written...the webs of imagery that Harris has so carefully woven...contains writing of which our best writers would be proud...there is not a single ugly or dead sentence...' - or so sang the critics. Hannibal is a genre novel, and all genre novels contain dead sentences - unless you feel the throb of life in such periods as 'Tommaso put the lid back on the cooler' or 'Eric Pickford answered' or 'Pazzi worked like a man possessed' or 'Margot laughed in spite of herself' or 'Bob Sneed broke the silence'. What these commentators and literary editors must be thinking of, I suppose, are the bits where Harris goes all blubbery and portentous (every other phrase a spare tyre), or when, with a fugitive poeticism, he swoons us into a dying fall: 'Strling looked for a moment through the wall, past the wall, out to forever and composed herself...' 'It seemed forever ago...' 'He looked deep, deep into her eyes...' 'His dark eyes held her whole...' Needless to say, Harris has become a serial murderer of English sentences, and Hannibal is a necropolis of prose.

deviger · 01-30-2008, 08:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stewart

The most memorable part - on noting that Lecter was a cameo in Red Dragon, then a supporting cast in The Silence Of The Lambs - was Amis' reporting that Harris had 'gone gay for Hannibal':

Red Dragon was decent. Since I had already seen the movie the plot twists were a bit spoiled for me.

In any case, Harris "went gay" for Hannibal Lecter because popular culture had gone gay for him. Harris was just giving the public what they wanted. Good way to cash in, bad way to write.

Stewart · 01-31-2008, 12:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deviger

In any case, Harris "went gay" for Hannibal Lecter because popular culture had gone gay for him. Harris was just giving the public what they wanted. Good way to cash in, bad way to write.

But Red Dragon and The Silence Of The Lambs were police procedurals and the public wanted more of this. What they got was Harris having a Hannibal love-in in the worst possible taste.

Malone · 01-31-2008, 01:22 PM

No dead sentences? Is that critic blind or just dyslexic? This book is not well written. That said, I guess I'm "gay" for Hannibal too, as I much enjoyed his deviousness rather than Starling's "goodness" and pursuit of justice.

Sam Winchester · 02-11-2008, 03:52 PM

If we're talking about Hannibal the book, I thought it was average. The movie wasn't much better. The Silence Of The Lambs, on the other hand, is both a brilliant novel and movie. It's awesome. One of the scariest I've ever read.

DavidGil · 02-11-2008, 04:55 PM

A good job I loaned this book from the library. I haven't read any of it yet. (I shall expect another thread to crop up about the other book I loaned too.

Insomnia.)